Government blasted for turning back on complaints hearing at "eleventh hour"

Wednesday 25 November 2020

The Chief Minister and other government officials have been blasted for acting in an "unhelpful" and "extremely unfair" way by refusing to engage in a complaints hearing at the "eleventh hour" - despite having had months to prepare.

The States of Jersey Complaints Board (SCB) - a panel responsible for investigating public grievances with how the government operates - will be hearing a complaint against the Chief Operating Office in respect of the recruitment process applied by the Health and Community Services Department, on Thursday at 10:00.

The Panel, whose work mirrors that of an Ombudsman, only accepts a complaint when the internal complaints process within a department has been exhausted.

In a statement released yesterday afternoon, the Board revealed the Chief Minister, Senator John Le Fondré and the Chief Operating Office – the department responsible for the running of Government - had decided not to engage with the Complaints process with only days left ahead of the hearing.

They refused to make any submission or to send anyone to the hearing as a representative, claiming the Board didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the complaint in question. 

The Board said the hearing would still go ahead, but that it might have to adjourn if it considers it does not have the information it requires to determine the matter. 

In that event, additional documents may be sought as provided by the Administrative Decisions (Jersey) Law 1982, under which the Complaints Panel operates.

“I am very disappointed with the stance taken in relation to this case, particularly as, not for the first time, a Minister or Department has raised a jurisdictional challenge at the eleventh hour, having had the papers for a number of months,” Chairman of the Panel, Geoffrey Crill said. 

“That is unhelpful to the process and extremely unfair to the individual complainant who has an expectation that the hearing will go ahead.”  

Following a request for comment from Express, the Government said that when the complaint had been submitted, the internal complaints procedure hadn’t been fully exhausted, and that they had said they would seek to do this. However, when the process was completed, they concluded there was no further reason to investigate.

"Government has set out to the SCB the basis on which it believes a matter of jurisdiction needs to be addressed, before any hearing takes place," a spokesperson said.

"To this effect, Government offered to meet relevant parties to resolve this matter.  The Board declined to postpone the hearing to address what Government believes is a matter for resolution. If parties agree it is a matter for the SCB, then papers will be filed and Government will cooperate fully with the request from the Board."